A Little While Series

If you have been with us for a while, you know we have been going through the book of John actually for over a year now. We actually are getting close to the end. If you have been with us the last few weeks, you know that we have been in the part of the gospel that represents the last week of Jesus’ life on earth known as the Passion Week. If you have been with us, you know that during that time Jesus has pretty much gotten out of the public eye and has been spending some time in intimate fellowship with his disciples. During that time, he has been given them some basic information and some basic instructions before his departure. Last week, the last sentence of the passage that we looked at was verse 16:16, where Jesus begins to unfold a rather cryptic and somewhat mysterious timeline of how future events would unfold. Reading from 16:16 he says “In a little while, you will see me no more and then after a little while, you will see me.” As usual, this caused a little bit of confusion among the disciples. They began to question among themselves what Jesus is talking about. As usual, Jesus goes on to accommodate them. He begins to unpack the meaning of these three little words “a little while”. I will be reading from chapter 16 starting at verse 17 and going all the way through down to verse 33. (Scripture read here.)

We see Jesus giving a cryptic timeline of how some of the future events will unfold. It causes confusion with the disciples. It continues to cause confusion today among the scholars who try to interpret what is going on here. Really, the consensus is that what Jesus is talking about in these “little whiles” is about the coming 72 hours where Jesus will be crucified and ultimately be resurrected. We know that in a little while, Jesus will go out into the garden and will face his betrayer Judas. We know that in a little while, the high priest will come and they will drag him off to Caiaphus where he will have to face him and face the charge of blasphemy and then how he would be dragged away and have to go and face the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. We know that in a little while, Pontius Pilate will sentence Jesus to die a horrible death on a Roman cross. After three hours on the cross, he will die. He will be placed into a borrowed tomb and the tomb will be sealed with a stone. In a little while, the disciples will no longer see Jesus. We also know and should be familiar that because we are in the Easter season, we know that Jesus did not remain in the grave. Is that an Amen out there? After three days, he came forth. When Mary Magdalene went to check him out and see if he was still in the tomb, and she went there to anoint his body with oil, and she found that the tomb was empty. John came out and Peter came out and they too found that the tomb was empty. The angels asked who are looking for and they said Jesus and they said “He is not here, he has risen indeed.”

After a little while longer, Jesus appeared to his disciples in the upper room. He didn’t appear in the physical sense. He appeared in the newly resurrected state. They knew him in the way they saw him again but they saw him in a totally new light. They saw him in his resurrected body. Jesus goes on to talk a little bit more about these little whiles and specifically that there would be a broad range of emotions going on with the disciples during these little whiles. Specifically, there would be two key emotions: the first one being grief and the second one being joy. We know that resurrection Sunday follows Good Friday. We know that Easter follows the time of the crucifixion, but we also know for the disciples there was a very long and dark Saturday in between. A Saturday that they would be feeling a little bit of fear; fear of the unknown. A Saturday that they may be feeling a little bit of regret for words they didn’t say to Jesus or words that they did say to Jesus. Maybe they would be feeling a little bit of confusion. Maybe they would be feeling remorse. They possibly could be feeling a little bit of anger at Jesus. Things didn’t pan out exactly the way that he said. We know that during that time of grief they would be feeling an intense amount of sadness. What makes matters worse is during this time while the disciples are in this period of grief, the passage tells us that the world would be rejoicing. It says “I tell you the truth; you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve but your grief will turn to joy.” Here Jesus is predicting they are going to be in this intense period of mourning, crying, weeping, and darkness, yet he says the world is going to be rejoicing for it. The world is going to be happy. This should not be any surprise to the disciples. It should not be any surprise to us because if you were with us since the very beginning, you know back in John 3 we learned that light has come into the world but for some reason man loved the darkness instead of the light. Why? Because its deeds were evil. As we learned earlier, when that light of Christ comes into the darkened world, the world is going to reject it. All you have to do is pick up your Bible and begin to study about Jesus and pretty soon the light of Christ begins to shine on you and you are feeling I am not sure I like that light of Christ shining on me. Back then, there were people that were very happy that Jesus was going to die on the cross. Following the crucifixion, there would be people around there that would be celebrating. They would be rejoicing. We also know that in a little while, things would change. That mourning time period would be short-lived because Jesus goes on to say that grief is going to take a transformation. It is going to turn into joy. We are going to see grief that is going to turn to joy. The disciples who were sad and dejected and frustrated and fearful would all of a sudden become overjoyed. If we wanted to see proof of that, all we have to do is jump forward about four chapters in chapter 20. The disciples are gathered in the upper room, following the resurrection, still not exactly sure what has happened. Still fearful for the Jews but Jesus makes his appearance and everything changes. It says “On the evening of that first day of the week when the disciples were together with the doors locked, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said ‘Peace be with you!’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.” They were overjoyed that grief did indeed turn to joy. We have Jesus laying out a pretty brief but somewhat cryptic timeframe about how events are going to happen but very true because we know that in a little while he would go on the cross. In a little while, he would find himself crucified. In a little while, he would find himself buried in a borrowed tomb and out of sight of the disciples. But we know also that after a time of mourning, after a time of weeping, a little while later that grief would turn to joy because of the resurrection. Just in case the disciples still don’t quite get it, he decides to create some other analogy to explain it to them; the analogy of birth. He goes on to say “A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”